The Memory Bee

8.31.11 A Sad Goodbye and a Happy Hello!

The sun rises over the desert at the Wild Horse Pass Resort... just gorgeous! I love the colors and peace of the desert... but not the heat! It REALLY feels good to be home with cool mornings and just warm enough afternoons. I'm so thankful to live where I do!

This was the last Creative Escape - sad to say goodbye to such a special event and especially to say goodbye to one more place to see friends and be inspired by great teachers!

Rebecca Cross, who owns Pink Paislee, got to play like I did... just fun to sit back and enjoy! I'm so grateful to her for so generously sponsoring my upcoming classes in South Africa!!

I loved making the album in Ali Edward's class... I need to enlarge pictures more. The visual impact is fabulous!

It was fun to play with Kristen and Julie from Whim So Doodle! I had my new class samples with me, so they got a look at them... we are all excited about my weekend at the "Doodle" at the end of October where these classes will make their debut!

My favorite project was the album cover we did in Amy Totty's class. Loved ruching the fabric onto the front of a chipboard album!

I can't believe I'm posting this picture but it's evidence of the fun that Cindy and Jennifer and I had on our adventures (even at JCrew... who looks good in this hat anyway?!!) We did a whole lot of laughing!

I almost deleted this picture because it's not in focus and not perfectly posed but I love it because it captures a moment of joy... good friends, lots of laughter and fun! (Margie, Ali, and Vicki in the background.)

On Sunday it was time for me to "work" and I was off to Scrap Happy Sisters to teach two classes before heading home that night. It was great to meet everyone there! We had so much fun that I'm going to be returning with my three new classes the first weekend in December!

Another great scrapbook store that is doing things right!! Thanks Kit and Kris!

Yesterday I spend a "happy" 3 hours in Driver Improvement class from a speeding ticket that I got back in June. I'm sure they make it extra boring as a deterent! Now I need to get the new class info sent to all the stores and start packing for South Africa... one week from today I'll be on my way!!!

8.25.11 Pooltime and Creative Escape

Today I decided it was time to relax by the pool (thank God, the water was nice and cool since it was unbelievably hot sitting out there!) and was so happy to be joined by one of my "sun sisters" Wendy Senger! We had a yummy lunch and a great chance to catch up!

Then it was time to kick off Creative Escape and start the fun! I love seeing friends from around the world! These gals are here from South Africa and I'll see some of them again in SA in a couple weeks!

I love all my Scrapbook Island buddies! Can't wait to be there again soon in November!

Great to see Jodi Sanford (who we'll miss in SA this year!)

Heidi Swapp and Mr. Bazzill (Doug Jones) in action along with a hilarious skit by the "Bazzill Boys."

Then we were off to Tia Rosa's for dinner with Cindy and Jennifer, the "Ink and Drink" girls from Tim's Holiday Hideaway. We laughed until it hurt! So much fun!! and celebrated Peggy's birthday...

Classes start in a little bit so I'm off to play! More soon!!

8.24.11 Melrose Vintage and special friends

We ventured out into the heat again today (115 degrees today) for more shopping... it is so unbelieveably hot! You step into the shade, thinking that it will be slightly cooler but it feels the same. The heat just radiates off the pavement... I feel bad for anyone who has to work outside and feel a lot of sympathy for the soldiers in Iraq where it is hotter than this and they have to wear their full gear. You really can't imagine it until you feel it!

We started out at Melrose Vintage. It is a total feast for the eyes!!

It was great to see Wendy and Diane!

Next stop was Rust and Roses... always such cool stuff there too!

We made a stop at a Goodwill where we found old piano rolls... can't wait to use them in a project! Then we went on to Glendale and Creative Quest. They had lots of cool binding samples!

Two visits to Sonic for Diet Cherry LImeade kept us hydrated! Back at the resort it was great to see Ali and Vicki who are teaching here. Ali and I have lots of fun memories at CKU and it was great to catch up again!

I took pictures of my two favorites finds from Domestic Bliss yesterday... the Jill Schwartz necklace...

Isn't it gorgeous?! I also got this pillow... love the birdies and the pink ric-rac trim and especially the sentiment! Seems perfect for me and my kids in Iraq...

8.23.11 Downtown Mesa and Wild Horse Pass

It is HOT here in Phoenix! The car thermometer said 122 (it was 57 when I left Buffalo this morning.!) The heat didn't prevent Peggy and I from doing some shopping though... our adventure today centered in Downtown Mesa.

First stop... Mystic Paper! I love the mixture of old and new at this store... there are bowls of game pieces and cards and lots of vintage ephemera... really cool stuff! I love that the pictures that decorate the walls are really the owner's relatives!

 

Our next stop was Beth Quinn's studio. I've admired her jewelry creations online, so it was really fun to see them in person and do a lot of drooling. She had some really great vintage findings and I got a darling little china doll head. It was so nice to meet Beth too!

Our last stop for the day was Domestic Bliss... one of my favorite stores! They've opened a second store with their furniture but they weren't open so we'll have to go back to Found. We found plenty to admire in Domestic Bliss though!

I got a lovely Jill Schwartz necklace and a sweet pillow... (check back - I'll add a picture of them.)

Time to head to our home for the next few days... the Wild Horse Pass Resort. I just love this place! It is gorgeous and in the most serene setting.

Tomorrow... more shopping!

8.22.11 Home from GA; off to AZ!

Today was a quick turn-around day... unpacking from the weekend teaching in Atlanta and repacking for this week in Phoenix... crazy!! I'm off to Creative Escape and get to be a student again. I loved teaching there 2 years ago and love going back to relax and learn and see lots of friends and do some shopping and maybe get a little pool time (if I can stand the heat!) This is the last Creative Escape so it will be bittersweet... I went to the first one and now to the last one!

I had a great weekend at Altered Angel! I loved meeting everyone and loved the store... Mary has put together a great variety of product for paper crafts, scrapbooking, and altered arts and mixed media projects. We also got a chance to visit a nearby antique mall, so that was a special treat! I got a little Queen Elizabeth coronation plate, a little cuckoo clock, and a stamp holder for my ink blending tools. Great goodies! A big thank you to all the sweet students in the classes! Hope to see you again soon!

My roomie Peggy and I are ready for an adventure tomorrow... she's mapped out our shopping strategy so we hit all the stores we love in Phoenix! Can't wait!

8.18.11 A trip down Memory Lane

Yesterday my mom, sister, and great-neice went on a little adventure that I've been wanting to do for a while... we found what pictures we could dig up of the houses we have lived in and then drove by them and took current pictures. We sure did a lot of reminiscing! It's so fun to talk about who remembers what!

What did we find? The trees sure have grown a lot and most of them don't look better now! I know a few people want to see the pictures, so here they are...

This is the first house that I "sort of" lived in ... in utero! My mom was pregnant with me here but came home from the hospital to a different house. She went into labor on her birthday and couldn't get a hold of anyone to take her to the hospital, so she called a taxi and waited on these front steps for it, but it never came. In the meantime a boy that had liked her in high school but that she couldn't stand drove by. She was able to flag him down and he took her to the hospital. What excitement! :)

She brought me home to this house... which is much nicer and bigger now.

The house was owned by a Polish lady who also lived there. My mom said that the lady would come out and talk to me in Polish while I played in the sandbox. When I first started talking, my mom thought I had picked up my jibberish from the lady and was speaking Polish!

After a year or so, we moved to this house in Niagara Falls, not too far from the Power Project on Isherwood Drive.

Now it looks like this...

This is the only house where someone came out and asked me why I was taking a picture of her house. When I showed her the old picture and told her what I was doing, she invited me in! It is soo tiny! Much smaller than I remember, of course! She told me that it was the first house on the street when it was built and was the "model" home. Too funny!

Then we moved to Clarence Center, to the corner of Long St. and Clarence Center Rd. This is the corner now...

Nice, huh?! The house was torn down long ago and a Verizon building is there now. The only picture that I have that shows any of the house is this one...

Of course, that's me with the glasses! I also took a picture of the house across the street where we used to play...

Just two houses down from our house was the house that the Continental plane crashed into a couple years ago. So hard to believe that it could come down straight onto a house in a neighborhood like this... they also had to tear down the house next door because of some damage to it. Do you remember the story? The man in the house was killed but the mother and daughter got out alive. So sad for him and the 30+ people that were killed on the plane.

Next we moved a couple streets over to this house on Railroad St. It used to be a gorgeous Victorian home. The curved shutters and the porch details were so pretty.

Now it is such a dump... it could/should be on an episode of Hoarders! Such a shame!! (this picture doesn't capture how bad it is!)

When I was in 4th grade we moved to the corner of Heim and Haussauer in Getzville. The trees are huge now!

When I was in 9th grade we moved to Chestnut Hill Lane South in Williamsvlle... this house looks the most the same. (Love the cars in the driveway... anyone remember the Monza? As they used to say, it only came in one color... rust!)

While I was in college my family moved to N. Union in Williamsville. This house was so much cuter when my parents lived here! I was married in the backyard here... so scenic with a creek and a bridge. I'm sure there is a before picture somewhere but we didn't find it for today. Here it is now...

Now I need to take pictures of the houses that my husband and I have lived in!

We also drove by the house that my grandparents built themselves when my mom was 17 years old. They even dug the foundation themselves! It's on Walmore Rd. in Wheatfield.

It was really fun and I feel blessed that we lived in about a 25 to 30 mile radius all our lives! Now I need to print these pictures and scrapbook it!!

Have you ever done something like this?

8.16.11 Come to Italy with me!

This is the magnificient view of the mountains, Lake Como, and the hotel pool where a very special event is taking place next year. Bellagio, Italy, will be the amazing destination for A Kiss on the Chic Bellagio Retreat... a scrapbooking event hosted by the lovely Laura McCullough, September 15-22, 2012. I thrilled to be one of the teachers at this event along with the super-talented Lisa Pace and Tammy Tutterow!

Not only will we be teaching exclusive classes but exploring this fabulous destination with everyone! Registration opens today and there is only room for 40 students. This promises to be an unforgettable adventure. I hope you can join us there! For more information, go HERE.

8.15.11 Atlanta bound!

Just a quick update about my classes coming up this weekend in Georgia... Alpharetta and Altered Angel is next on my teaching schedule! I'm so looking forward to visiting this store! So many scrapbook stores have closed in the last few months, so it's exciting when a new store opens and love to support them in any way I can! I know I'll be shopping when I'm there!

I'm thrilled for Mary and so happy for the great store and atmosphere she's providing for her customers. If you'd like the last chance to take the Junket Journal class or the Peace Keeper class, this is it! The classes will be retired after this weekend and the kits are very limited. I'll be teaching the Recipe of Me class one more time in Phoenix next week at Scrap Happy Sisters but after that, those kits are totally gone. (Those classes are either sold out or very close to it, so give them a call if you're interested in the AZ classes.) If you'd like a kit, you can call the store and they'll send it to you... the kits come with printed directions with color pictures so you can do it on your own if you need to.

Hope to see lots of my southern friends this weekend! We'll have a blast!!

8.10.11 Homework

I got these roses on our anniversary from my hubby... I think I should always have roses on my dining room table! They just make me happy. Aren't they fabulous?!! And they're from Wegmans... the best grocery store around. :) The buds open so perfectly...

I've been a busy bee, doing my "homework," working on the new classes I'll be teaching this fall and into the new year. I'm so grateful for the companies that are so supportive of my classes... they have gotten me the samples I've needed of new product to work with, even to the point of taking samples down from the CHA displays! Some still have the velcro from hanging on display on the back! A lot of product is so new that it doesn't come out until into the fall, but I needed the samples to at least make the class project with... so a huge thank you!! October Afternoon, Crate Paper, Jenni Bowlin, Graphic 45, 7gypsies, Unibind, Basically Bare, Hambly, Anna Griffin, American Crafts, and May Arts have all be so generous with supplying me with what I need to design the best classes I can for my students!

Here's a peek at my design room with all its creative chaos...

Piles everywhere, just waiting for transformation! I'm feeling so inspired! For my Christmas album class I think I'm going to be mixing product from several companies to make a vintagy, nostalgic album. Here's just a tiny peek of my playing so far...

The picture on the right is a peek of another class with a rich mix of prints and textures using the Random collection from Crate Paper. Can't wait to show you more and tell you what it's about!! I'm very excited about it!

The third class will be really special using the Farmhouse collection from October Afternoon, but not with a farm theme (unless you want to use it that way!) Our hardcover book album will be... oh, wait... that's still a secret!

Hope to see you in class! :)

8.4.11 Happy Anniversary to us!

Today is another special day... our 32nd anniversary! I'm so thankful for my husband who has been so patient and encouraging, faithful and supportive, driving me back and forth to the airport, lugging my suitcases around the last few years... we've had so many great adventures, and I'm looking forward to many more! I love you...

As dated as this picture is... I think it's officially vintage... I still love it! The yellow tuxes on the guys sure looks corny now with the girl's homemade dresses, but it was totally me and really beautiful at the time in the garden setting of the wedding in my parent's backyard. If it had rained, I would have been devastated, but thank God, it was a beautiful day... the neighborhood ducks (if you live in Williamsville, you know what I mean) even came down the aisle before we did! How many brides had a floppy hat back then?! :) And I was a brunette?!! Lots of great memories!

So many people long for the good old days, but this picture is a perfect reminder for me that someday TODAY will be the "good old days" so I need to treasure THIS day and this time.